Posts Tagged ‘Audience Participation’

A collaboration between three notable Philadelphia female artists—Ani Gavino (movement artist), Latreice Branson (percussionist). and Jasmine Lynea (director)—Sunset CypHER is an improvisational performance between dance, drums, the sunset, and the audience that actively takes part in the communal expression.

It’s Christmastime in September! Join our lovable snowman for a drink as he narrates the Yuletide pandemonium that is the tale of Mitchell Claus and Daisy Scarlett. Their love story is threatened when a blackmail scandal emerges in Santa’s workshop amid Mrs. Claus’ critical re-election bid for mayor of the North Pole.

*Audio description for Saturday, September 21 performance at 1:30pm.

ADA accessible

$15 / 100 minutes

Peter Fenton is a Philadelphia-based writer for the stage, screen, and blog committed to creating intelligent, humorous content. He specializes in writing comedy dialog, most frequently within fantasy, fairy tale, and science fiction stories for all ages. Following his first two stage play publications in February 2019, Fenton launched ByPeterFenton.com to begin freelance script and story writing and to host information about each of his stage and screenplays as well as a periodic blog about his writing process and personal life. While they overlapped working at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, director Amanda Pasquini and actress Chelsea Cylinder joined with Fenton to mobilize ByPeterFenton.com as a theatrical production company in May 2019, mounting the world premiere of Fenton’s holiday comedy See Amid the Winter Snow as their debut production.

A collaboration between Leah Stein and Asimina Chremos that engages dancers and community members to perform at LOVE Park, RISE raises awareness of momentary spatial relationships, groupings, and constellations created by everyday folks in our city as they travel from place to place.

Free / 25 minutes

RISE is made possible with support from the Fairmount Park Conservancy and Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation.

In the case of inclement weather, RISE will have a rain date on Sunday, September 15 at 2pm, 3pm, and 4 pm.

Happy Hour on the Fringe

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, we share a drink with Marc Wilken from Parks and Recreation and three independent Fringe Festival artists: Dana Suleymanova (Dear qupid), Eric Thayer (Give Your Heart), and Leah Stein with Asimina Chremos (RISE: Relationship is Self Existing). All of the performances are participatory and engage with the City of Brotherly Love as they explore love, the beating heart, and how human bodies share space in LOVE Park this September. Listen to the podcast episode below or read the full transcript on the FringeArts Blog.

The Temple of Venus is open for worship on Friday the 13th of September. Holding space with light, sound, flesh, scent, and taste, this immersive experience is centered on the divine feminine, presented through an interactive flesh suspension, art installation, accompanied by poetry, burlesque, and ritual. Enjoy a submersion of the senses with curated cocktails and snacks as you explore an ancient artform brought to new life in the city, in honor of Venus.

$50 / 90 minutes

The Collective of Jawn is a group of multi-disciplinary practitioners who have come together to weave their magick and create beautiful environments with a blend of hook suspension, rope, dance, performance, art installations, burlesque, poetry and photography.

Using exemplary stagecraft and thoughtful curation of aesthetic elements, Temple of Venus will feature suspension of Amanda Mandalay and Will Atkins by Orban Isma of The Skin Project, performances from Eyrie Twilight, Miss V and others of Hexwork, visual alchemy from Brent of Tiv Photos, and coordination from the creative minds of ELECTROCUTE. “Beauty that exists on the fringe has always fascinated people, as strange and bewildering as it may seem,” says Amanda Mandalay, creative director of ELECTROCUTE, “Temple of Venus is a chance for us to showcase some of the more cultural aspects of the occult in modern-day terms. Beyond ancient history and beauty standards, I am happy to say that our show presents a taste of Occulture that is diverse, decadent, and playful in its respect of the divine.”

About the Artists

Eyrie Twilight has been creating live Occulture since 2014 with the inception of Hexwork- A Spellbinding Burlesk Revue, a twice annual celebration of the Sacred and the Sexy, featuring a rotating cast of performances exploring themes of death and the divine feminine.

An expert at ephemeral capture, Brent has expanded his creative vision from the camera to creating immersive pieces integrating ascetic experiences through technology. His mercurial talents inform the audience and provide beautiful, engaging backdrops for your photos.

Orban Isma is a multi-disciplinary artist, that works primarily with rope, metal, and the human body. His focus is in exploring the connections between geometry and the human sensory experience, and as a result, finds himself in the realm of the occult often. His primary medium of interest is that of body suspension, which led to his founding of Anchors Aweigh in 2011, and The Skin Project in 2015.

Amanda “SpOoky” Mandalay is a dark artist who embodies the adage “variety is the spice of life” with her diverse background in aerial acrobatics, dance, flow arts, body modification and performance coordination. Her penchant for the unusual and the beautiful show in her designs, themed acts and visually arresting stage presence. She has been directing and performing in shows with ELECTROCUTE since 2010 and is the creative force behind Nightmare Festival, Dreamscape, and others.

The Collective of Jawn celebrates all that the spirits of Love and Beauty have to offer in their show and become alchemists in their own right; blending their skills and transforming them into a fusion of their own that is the Temple of Venus.

This is a cosmic constellation. Come for the conversation. Stargaze for days. Costarring the interstellar Maddie & Kayla, Queenz Collective (Sanchel Brown, Caitlin Green), and Haylee Warner. This work supports and is supported by Urban Movement Arts (UMA) Come take a class! UMA welcomes adults of all ages and experience levels.

$15 / 60 minutes

Soar between the planets of our performance solar system. You will be buckled in an out of mini performances inhabiting the studios, cubbies, and closets of Urban Movement Arts (UMA). Quick feet are hidden around the corner. Orbiting bodies invite you with their gravitational field.

UMA is producing Fire in the Sky as part of its expanded Artists in Residency (AIR) programs, directed by Lily Kind. The AIR program supports creators of experimental dance, theater, and performance who walk with Afro diasporic and American folk dance traditions. UMA welcomes adults of all ages and experience levels to learn American folk dance and African Diaspora movement genres such as Hip Hop, Jazz, Breaking, Waacking, and House. UMA serves as the downtown hot spot for professional dancers in under-represented forms to practice, cipher, and build.

We live with fear everyday. Fear Itself takes the audience on a tour through a real historical cemetery to explore the concept of fear, the lost souls we encounter along the way, and the choices we get to make to either save these souls or leave them behind.

$10–$20 / 45 minutes

The Hum’n’bards Theater Troupe is dedicated to creating devised musical theater, exploring themes of science fiction, social justice, queer identity, and more. We at the Hum’n’bards believe that art needs to be accessible to people, regardless of financial ability. Therefore, our shows offer flexible ticket policies such as pay-what-you-can and sliding scale. The company was founded in 2016 by Wyatt Flynn, and has continued to create original work with primarily queer theater artists.

I Spy, With My Little Eye slides down the Chutes and Ladders of youth into the Scrabble of your earliest memories. This interactive dance performance provides an opportunity to Connect Four a moment in the shared joys and toys of childhood experience. Through five sections of movement, eight dancers search for unified experiences that highlight moments of togetherness, of childhood friends, of special places that inspire our imaginations, of collecting precious items that define our personalities. Accompanied by original music by Alina John, we move together in spontaneous games of I Spy, Tag, Hopscotch, and Whisper Down The Lane in an exploration of presence and fun, dancing ourselves into a playful reflection on what it was like to be a kid. Children are welcome!

$5 for 12 and under, $20 / 55 minutes

Choreographer and Philadelphia native, Kalila Kingsford Smith, is an independent performer, dance educator, and dance writer. Informed by her training in modern and contemporary dance, her choreography flows between tension and release, momentum and suspension, improvisation and composition, and storytelling and abstraction. Kalila Kingsford Smith Dance is a project-based collection of dancer-artists who build interactive environments in which the dance crosses the perceived boundaries between audience and performer. Each dance is a product of the creative energies of all involved; the performers, the creative collaborators, and the audience.

This immersive dance experience places the audience in and around the performance space in an unconventional theater setup. The all-female cast from NYC-based Inclined Dance Project invites the audience to experience dance from a fresh point of view and explore new perceptions of environment.

$15 / 60 minutes

Inclined Dance Project is an all-female Brooklyn-based contemporary dance company which strives to present visually intricate landscapes inspired and propelled by human experiences. As an all-female dance company Inclined aims to challenge the stereotypical roles of a female dancer by creating works that defy gender and physicality. Derived from a fusion of classic dance vocabulary, pedestrian mannerisms, and contemporary ideas, IDP aims to create work that tests the imagination of audiences. Inclined approaches dance-making through a “set and destroy” method, allowing the performers and collaborating artists the opportunity to deconstruct material and incite dialogue, exploration, and personal contribution to a work. The end result is athletic, technical, and dynamic movement that challenges the dancer and engages audiences.

Inclined Dance Project was founded by Artistic Director Kristen Klein in 2009 and the company has performed at many venues and festivals throughout New York City, New England, and San Francisco including Boston University, The Brooklyn Academy of Music: Fishman Space, the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Baruch College, Dixon Place, Little Boxes Theatre, The Dance Complex, Chen Dance Center, the Center for Performance Research, University Settlement, the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, Greenspace, The Actors Fund Arts Center, Triskelion Arts, RAW Artists, the Totts Gap Arts Institute, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, among many others. The company is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas and has been featured in Dance Spirit Magazine, The Huffington Post, Critical Dance Magazine, DiY Dancer, FitEngine Reviews, offoffoff Dance, and on Dancemedia.com.

Billy Joel said it best: “You know that when the truth is told, you can get what you want or you get old.” Vienna’s birthday is always celebrated with a sleepover. There are three games to play: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. However, Youth can be neither won nor lost. Vienna waits for you…

$12 / 100 minutes

MyVision Theater Ensemble is an after-school theater company based at The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). All of the Ensemble’s members are in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. Although MyVision produces theater, the ensemble urges all members to embrace the arts in every form, and members represent every arts major offered at CAPA.

Members of MyVision take on every artistic role in our productions, including writer, director, actor, and designer, among others. The Ensemble creates and presents original, provocative productions. MyVision makes an effort to touch on a wide variety of sensitive subjects including, but not limited to domestic violence, gender identity, and abortion. MyVision Theater Ensemble was founded by and is run by the visionary artists of tomorrow.

September 10 + 11, 2019Dumpster Dance for Garbage People is not a solution, it’s a recognition of a process. A bizarre fever dream of aggressive camp dance, it embraces so much wrong that it’s right. We are all garbage—own it and feel the fantasy. Dumpster Dance for Garbage People: welcome to the void.

$15 / 90 minutes

Bio: Prudence Anne Amsden has recently received her MFA in dance from Temple University and is an emerging interdisciplinary artist in Philadelphia. Once a native of California she has a degree from Mills College in Art History. Through her developing career she has worked with dance artist Molissa Fenly, Shelly Senter, Merian Soto and Awilda Sterling-Duprey, and Lela Aisha Jones. Since moving to Philadelphia, she has become involved in the local drag and queer performance community and now works to bring not traditional drag and experimental improvisation dance together whenever she can. As an artist she is interested in improvisation, performance, drag, video, surrealism, kitsch, camp, horror, humor, feminism, unicorns, garbage and glitter. She is a self identifying dumpster fire, and love to attract and work with people who identify the same way.

No one will be turned down due to lack of funds.

Parking and Location Information:

Street Parking is available in the neighborhood, there are two paid lots nearby the venue. Franky Bradley’s is a short walk for the Walnut/Locust st stop on the Broad Street Line. The performance will take place upstairs in Franky Bradley’s lounge.

Show Information:

21+ performances due to *mature content*: Tuesday, September 10th & Wednesday September 11th

Doors 7:30pm, Performance 8:30pm

Slight audience participation

Tipping is encouraged

Audience free to get up and get a drink and use restroom through the performance

Agent, you must infiltrate the Future Summit conference to investigate a new threat against your country. Keep in touch with your Spy Handler via text message as you navigate drinks, lightning talks, overenthusiastic influencers, and dad jokes. Maybe you saved the world before. Time to do it again.

Secret Agent (with interactive chatbot): Live out your dreams of being a Secret Agent infiltrating a high-profile event. Throughout the evening, your Spy Handler will be texting you to obtain your strategy. YOUR choices directly affect how events unfold.($30) – 15 tickets per show

Super Secret Agent VIP experience: Same as a Secret Agent, plus additional super secret scenes that no one else gets to see and an additional mission just for the VIPs.($35) – 4 tickets per show

TICKETING FAQ:

– I’ve heard about the chatbot / interactive texting element. I want to do that. Which ticket should I get?If you want to be a spy at the show (use the interactive chatbot to help determine the path the show takes), choose either: Secret Agent (with interactive chatbot) or Super Secret Agent VIP experience. Secret Agents and Super Secret Agent VIPs should bring fully charged phones.

-Will I have to download an app to use the chatbot?No, your phone just has to be able to receive text messages.

Enter a mind-bending combination of live theater and exploration that may lead you to doubt the very nature of existence — to “Question Reality.” Step out of YOUR reality and into a Lynchian world of mystery and intrigue. Come early and stay late in our Immersive HQ Lounge, the hub for immersive entertainment at Fringe – where performances are not just a show, but an adventure.

Audience members become “players” of “Question Reality” as they are drawn to a century-old abandoned warehouse, where a tear in reality has opened a portal to another realm – where nothing is ever as it seems. Inside, discovery is paramount as players embark on a journey filled with unexpected encounters. Throughout more than 6,000 square feet, players will be thrust into a story that’s out of this world as they meet unsettling characters and explore elaborately designed sets.

$20 / 30 minutes

From our humble beginnings at the University of Pennsylvania to 4 years of wildly creative productions in Orlando, Pseudonym Productions has returned to Philadelphia to present the first in a series of revolutionary experiences.

We create thrilling immersive experiences that entertain, engage, and captivate for those who crave more adventure in their lives.

At Philly Fringe: Be among the first to enter the Pseudoverse, an infinite world of entertainment that isn’t just a place; it’s a lifestyle.

After Fringe ends: Return to Pseudonym throughout the month of October as the immersive fun continues for a social Halloween experience unlike any other. Mysterious, psychological, and foreboding, arrive ready to explore. Begin with a drink in our lounge and effortlessly get swept away to uncover mysteries and discover intriguing characters across a world filled with unexpected encounters.

Across vibrant worlds, engagingly unique performances, and astonishing visceral thrills, our productions let you choose your own experience, so you can become anyone you wish, allowing you to be the hero, or the villain, you always wanted to be.

Enter a whole new world of entertainment and connect with others in meaningful, unexpected ways.

Within our experiences, you’ll discover that every story and every adventure has a soul. They are experiences that surround you with imaginative, otherworldly sensations that stay with you long after your journey ends.

Inspired by interactive video games, our experiences transport you to a world unlike your own, where appearances deceive and even the familiar feels entirely foreign. No headsets. No controllers. This is not virtual reality, it’s real reality.

With Pseudonym Productions, take a step outside your comfort zone, live differently, and question reality.

Give Your Heart is a participatory sound performance designed to both involve and reflect the Philadelphia community. Participants will be able to add their heartbeats to an improvisational sound score, both generated and enjoyed by Philadelphians.

Free / 60 minutes

Using medical technology, audience members will have their heartbeats recorded, looped, and played back into LOVE Park as an abstract soundscape, reminiscent of a communal drum circle.

Happy Hour on the Fringe

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, we share a drink with Marc Wilken from Parks and Recreation and three independent Fringe Festival artists: Dana Suleymanova (Dear qupid), Eric Thayer (Give Your Heart), and Leah Stein with Asimina Chremos (RISE: Relationship is Self Existing). All of the performances are participatory and engage with the City of Brotherly Love as they explore love, the beating heart, and how human bodies share space in LOVE Park this September. Listen to the podcast episode below or read the full transcript on the FringeArts Blog.

Viewers are invited to seek love advice from qupid at this interactive performance situated near the LOVE sculpture. Part awkward school play, part shoddy lemonade stand, this is a combination of advice columns, dating shows, themes around romance, and the divine in a strange whimsical experience.

Free / 60 minutes

Special thanks to my assistant performers and the FringeArts team for making this happen.

Happy Hour on the Fringe

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, we share a drink with Marc Wilken from Parks and Recreation and three independent Fringe Festival artists: Dana Suleymanova (Dear qupid), Eric Thayer (Give Your Heart), and Leah Stein with Asimina Chremos (RISE: Relationship is Self Existing). All of the performances are participatory and engage with the City of Brotherly Love as they explore love, the beating heart, and how human bodies share space in LOVE Park this September. Listen to the podcast episode below or read the full transcript on the FringeArts Blog.

Brick and Bristle explore masculinity the only way possible, through a red nose and booty shorts. When does masculinity become toxic? With the smallest masks, these two clowns seek to unmask a space where masculinity can be vulnerable. Is castration inevitable? Don’t manspread too much.

$10 / 45 minutes

Director Rebecca Posner Photography/Production Manager Jeanne Lyons

Nathan Alford-Tate, Travis Draper & Rebecca Posner are devising artists from various parts of the US. Sharing a common education from the Devised Performance MFA program at UARTS/Pig Iron, we seek to create work that is interdisciplinary. We connect movement, music, text, and metaphors to realize our original pieces. Our mission is to create theatrical experiences that eschew the easy labels of “play” or “musical” and dissolve not only the barriers between stylistic modes but also the barrier between performer and audience.

Dungeons & Dragons & Improv! Like Whose Line Is It Anyway? meets The Lord of the Rings, Roll Play cleverly combines fantasy storytelling games with interactive improv comedy. With YOUR suggestions shaping the world, the characters, and their quest, every show is a brand new adventure!

$15 / 60 minutes

All performances are BYOB and appropriate for all ages. Celebrating someone’s birthday or other event? Let us know via our Facebook page, and they’ll be part of the show!

“Went on a whim as a lover of D&D and theater, and wow. I was amazed by how funny this was! Really well moderated, and some truly hilarious moments.” (Sandra S.)

“It would’ve been the highlight of my evening even if I hadn’t been invited up to cameo as a Lich Queen. Fun for RPG fans and people who just like funny stuff.” (Yona Y.)

Headphones on, follow along. Jenny has been summoned and you agreed to help. Retrace her steps and listen to her final dispatch to discover how we break the cycle. Emergency Contact is an immersive, traveling experience for a solo audience member.

$20 / 45 minutes

Directed and created by Ann Kreitman Voice of Jenny played by Parker Sera

Emergency Contact is a show for one audience member at a time. Audience members are required to wear headphones for the duration of the performance and to walk inside and outside according to direction provided through the headphones. Accommodations will be provided during inclement weather. The performance begins and ends at The Good Karma Cafe at the Wilma Theatre.

Join Kate Loitz and award-winning guitarist Lenny Ranallo on the beautiful roof deck of the Davison Building. Our venue is atop a private apartment building, so you must be escorted to the roof. Please arrive early so everyone can be seated by curtain. And be aware that there are no restrooms. The show is not for children, although teens should be fine. There are dark moments, and funny ones as well. Even a couple of sing-alongs.

Billy the Bully Goat’s parents and teachers are at their wits’ end! They cannot get Billy to stop picking on the other kids in his class. Luckily, the Wise Old Goat has a plan. Will it work? Can Billy change his behavior? Ages 4-9.

$8 kids, $12 adults / 45 minutes

Written by Staci Schwartz (a physician, author, and educational consultant for children’s bullying prevention) Directed by Ben Smallen (actor, director, and board chair and founding member of Directors Gathering) Original music composed by Liz Filios (a Barrymore Award–winning actor, musician, and teaching artist) Music directed by Michael Borton (cowriter and composer of Berenstain Bear LIVE – Family Matters).

About Play Nice ProductionsIn today’s world, bullying is all around us—in books, in movies, on TV, in schools, on playgrounds, and in workplaces. Our children are watching as divisive behavior is normalized. Adults must teach kids to be kind and to make good choices. Why not make that learning fun through interactive children’s theater, a medium good for both auditory and visual learners? Play Nice Productions was created in May 2019 to offer young children interactive and exciting theater experiences that will help them learn to be kind, empathetic, and inclusive individuals. Our first show is a 45-minute play, Billy the Baaadly Behaving Bully Goat: The Musical, during which a young bully goat must learn how his mean behavior affects others. Kids aged 4–9 will laugh, sing, and interact with our talented cast—all while learning to be caring and compassionate up-standers.

This play will be performed six times during the 2019 Fringe Festival in September. We are so excited to be contributing one of the few Fringe programs geared specifically for kids and families! All performances will take place in a popular, ADA-accessible, neighborhood child and family enrichment center called Nest (located at 1301 Locust Street).

Separated by time and space, Meg and Sterling have to find their way back to the center of the Wild Wild Web. Through dance, theater, and video, SplitScreen helps us rediscover who we are in this new digital landscape. No one is turned away at the door due to lack of funds.

$10 / 45 minutes

Created and Performed by Meg Kirchhoff and Sterling Melcher Music by Tom Carman MN Outside Eye by Karina Culloton PHL Outside Eye by Jeffrey Evans

For information about the Minneapolis location, please email tree.lock.productions@gmail.com

This production was developed through Philadelphia’s SoLow Fest 2018, Springboard for the Arts and the Hinge Artist Residency in Fergus Falls, MN, Joe’s Steak + Soda Shop, and the generosity of the populace at large.